MUSIC: Vijay Iyer's "Historicity" most acclaimed jazz album of the year + webcast

==> Listen live, or later to a recording:http://www.blogtalkradio.com/saja/2010/02/09/music-vijay-iyer(you
can set an e-mail reminder for yourself at that link)Or
call-in to listen and/or talk to him at +1-347-324-5991.Send your questions/comments via e-mail to saja[at]columbia.edu
(subject = webcast) of via Twitter @sajahq.
You can also use the
chatroom that will be open at the link above to ask live questions. You
can also post your questions in the comments section below.

The last ballot has been cut-and-pasted, and I couldn't be happier with the results of the fourth annual Village Voice Jazz Critics' Poll. Oh, sure I could—but with a record 99 critics voting, what would Nate Silver have said the odds were of my top four actually finishing No. 1 through 4 for Album of the Year?

Nothing's better than a close race where you're cheering for both sides, and Vijay Iyer's Historicity—a classic piano-trio album if your definition extends, as mine does, to such maverick examples as Herbie Nichols's Blue Note records, Paul Bley's Footloose!, Don Pullen's New Beginnings, and Misha Mengelberg's Who's Bridge, alongside accepted-as-canonical Monk, Bud Powell, and Bill Evans—built its narrow lead over alto saxophonist and flutist Henry Threadgill's This Brings Us To, Volume 1 only late in the game.

[The Nate Silver reference is to the statistician and founder of FiveThirtyEight.com, the politics predicting site that took the electoral-college world by storm in 2008.]

This is the most important such poll out there and one of many honors that the 38-year-old Iyer received this year:

#1 Jazz/Pop Album of the Year - The New York Times #1 Jazz Album of the Year - National Public Radio, U.S.A. #1 Jazz Album of the Year - Los Angeles Times #1 Innovative Jazz Release of 2009 - Chicago Tribune #1 Best Jazz of 2009 - PopMatters.com #2 Jazz Album of the Year - JazzTimes Poll (40 critics voting)

Read more about Iyer (what the Chicago Tribune's Howard Reich said about him: "By now, there can be no doubt that pianist-composer Iyer stands among the most daringly original jazz artists of the under-40 generation") and listen to his music at Vijay-Iyer.com and follow him on Twitter: @vijayiyer.

Among the 99 critics participating in the VV poll was music writer Siddhartha Mitter, whose archive of work on a variety of topics in a variety of places can be found at SiddharthaMitter.typepad.com.

BTW, M.I.A.'s breakout hit, "Galang" (seen on Honda Civic ads) is one of the cover songs, interpreted by Iyer, on "Historicity" and he mentions it in the YouTube video above.

==> Listen live, or later to a recording:http://www.blogtalkradio.com/saja/2010/02/09/music-vijay-iyer(you
can set an e-mail reminder for yourself at that link)Or
call-in to listen and/or talk to him at +1-347-324-5991.Send your questions/comments via e-mail to saja[at]columbia.edu
(subject = webcast) of via Twitter @sajahq.
You can also use the
chatroom that will be open at the link above to ask live questions. You
can also post your questions in the comments section below.